The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-01-01

respect for his evident good intentions pre-
| vented the flash of defiant anger from
them. They were splendid eyes, as Uncle
Charlie has said many time since, and is
ready to say still.
This is very awkward" she said at
| length. Il could cry, but it is better to
| laugh. You mnst be aware that | can not,
| under such peculiar circumstances, make a
confident OF stranger. And | can mean
| no dlSreSpect to one whom | never saw be-
fore, if / say that l can not become indebted
to you, sir, for any thing. hope l am still
entitled to think myself lady"
| Every inch lady" thought Uncle
Charlie.
"And must therefore thank you for the
Kindness you intended -"
Poor and proud" thought Uncle Charlie.
| And bid you good morning"
Done like queen, thought Uncle
| Charlie, as he rose, and found his watch
and money still safe. 81 have two requests
to make of you" he said, ''since you will
receive nothing of me-"
Il am ready to hear" she said. That
much, she thought, is due to your good in
tentions, if you had them, and you do not
| look like bad man. Uncle Charlie looked
| like any thing else. He said:
Zone is that you shall not reprimand or
punish my enigma for bringing me here"
"Granted.n
"The other that you will allow me to call
again"
Inc lduy SHOOK her DedQ.
"With my sister this afternoon"
The lady considered moment 81 am
very much embarrassed" she said sat this
remarkable interview But you may call /:
| 1t will not do to suspect everybody, though
Heaven knows ! have reason enough. A
shade of deep sadness came over her face.
"You are certainly very handsome"
thought Uncle Charlie, as he took his leave,
land more interesting. 1t is quite New
Years adventure He did not feel for his
watch AMI purse till he was clear of the
court. Still finding the integrity of his
pockets preserved, he walked briskly away,
full of curiosity and determined to satisfy
it if possible
1t is an agreeable amusement, as you walk
along the streets, to speculate upon the in
habtants of the houses and to people them
with folks of your own fancying; to imagine
who ought to live in this house and who in
that, to preserve the unities. Uncle Charlie
would, no doubt, have INDUCED in such day
dreams if his head had not been full of the
wonderful place he had just left wonderful
for its very simplicity as fairy bower;
with its remarkable child and the quiet,
lady-lile, self-possessed mother. The tene-
ment had, to a Philadelphia, nothing no.
ticeable about it. 1t was one of those small
houses peculiar to the Quaker City, with
the street door opening directly into the
best room, with very narrow front and not
much depth. But it was one house, whole
I tenement as widow could have have all to
herself at small cost, or clerk or other man
of modest means might occupy, and not be
forced into a mixed residence with other
people.
And the furniture had evidently been re-
moved here from place more commodious.
The piano took up more than its fair share
OF one side Of the ROOM and other articles
said as plainly aS they could speak, that
they were never purchased for their pres
ent quarters. These things were not the
puzzle of the place for Uncle Charlie. What
did that child mean by taking him home
with her! And what did the mother mean
by saying that she had no friends! If she
had only entertained him with plausible
story, !he would have understood at once that
the whole thing was palpably "A trap.
While Uncle Charlie walks and wonders
we will slip on before him to the house
where he would have been long before, if
the little enigma had not beguiled him out
OF the way.
Here, too, were the evidences that the in
mates had seen more cheerful days. But
none of the thousands who passed the mod
est mansion, scrupulously neat, could have
guessed that any thing but prosperity was
within. The wellwashed marble steps We're
kept so by compromise with the single
woman of all work. That functionary took
turn at street sweeping, window washing
and passenger gazing, while her mistress
supplied, for a time, her place within doors.
And thus the house was managed, as many
such are in the Quaker City" 1t is para
disc for people of limited income, and for
the poor and respectable, where by decent
tictions in housekeeping, and laudable hypo-
crisy, good appearance may still be made;
and honest, Self-respect may be preserved
after the wealth which once made all things
easy has slipped away.
In that house a cheerful voice had broken
INc lNa4i
New Year! Happy New Yearn' OF course
it was a child's voice. Children are the last
to learn that it is proper and sensible to mar
our present byTegrets over the past. And
it was boys voice; for little girls, like
our strange friend Edith, will sometimes
acquire precocious and unchild-like knowl-
edge of the worlds cares and perplexites.
Girls are more discerning i'll many things
more wise, more prudent than boys. They are
admitted behind the scenes in the little
drama of domestic acting, in which the fam
lily weep as though they wept notn Bows
know less than girls. And so do men than
women, | think. But then am woman.
Uncle Charlie called this little boy his moth
er's sunshine" And so he was. All chill
dren, in some degree, deserve the name, but
it was little Geordie's prominently. God,
in His wisdom, has made these little ones
angels in the house. They will see only the
bright side Little sorrows afflict them, but
their tears pass over like April showers and
they will not be defrauded of the happiness
that is left, and are willing to be pleased
still, after all reverses and disappoint-
mentS.n
If little Geordie was Sunshine to his
uncle, Uncle Charlie was the whole solar
system to his nephew. The boy lived in his
uncle's light. His mother was dear to him,
very dear. But then mother was with him
always, and Uncle Charlie came in like the
wonder in fairy story, just when he was
most wanted and most welcome Mother
was nsad, and often perplexed, and
though always kind. sometimes slow to
answer the thousand questions of child
hood. But Uncle Charlie was always
light and cherry. He never looked per-
picked, for nothing could puzzle him. o,
no! And as to questions, he always an
swered them, even the most difficult, though
candor compels the confession that his re-
plies would not always bear veriication
under oath or affirmation.
Mother, Geordie was compelled to be-
heve, was somewhat helpless, like himself,
but Uncle Charlie could do every thing
Geordie could only hint his wishes, and If
his uncle could not quite accomplish them,
he could suggest some thing else which he
maintained, and the child believed, was a
great deal better. Geordie longed, O,
how much, for . live pony. Uncle Charlie
bought him a rocking horse, which would
neither kick nor run away. Besides, it
would eat nothing, and Geordie was easily
convinced that the wooden ponys moderate
appetite was a great recommendation. He
could make believe feed it, you know, and a
horse that only makes believe eat is very